Episode 549:
Chicks with red-rimmed eyes and Jung Eun-woo, who is not by their side.
Jaeheon Lee’s judgment was quick.
‘I failed.’
I smiled immediately.
“Oh my.”
“….”
“Shall I hug you?”
As expected, Park Da-young came to him crying. It was a very careful and fragile movement.
I could hear very faint whimpering sounds, but as I gently held her in my arms, her cries gradually grew louder.
Lee Jae-heon put his hand on the back of Park Da-young’s neck and gently stroked it.
“are you okay.”
It seemed like this was going to happen anyway.
Lee Jae-heon, holding Park Da-young in his arms, saw Seo Jang-hwa standing there with a confused look on his face.
‘That’s not bad judgment.’
Seo Jang-hwa was a survivor who showed great resistance to Lee Jae-heon dying instead of Park Da-hoon. He even argued arrogantly and complained about Lee Jae-heon’s opinion.
A teammate who had no hesitation in asserting his or her opinion was the type that was tiring to deal with.
So, he must have been quite proud, but from the looks of it, it seemed like Jung Eun-woo came to the concert hall right after he failed.
It couldn’t have been Park Da-young’s idea, which seemed like she was losing her temper, so it must have been Seo Jang-hwa’s decision, but it was a pretty good one.
‘A chick who bends her pride and makes the right decision is precious.’
Lee Jae-heon liked Seo Jang-hwa.
“Boots.”
“…uh.”
“Wouldn’t it be necessary to explain the situation?”
“….”
As I asked that while still trying to comfort Park Da-young, I saw Seo Jang-hwa’s expression harden.
I may have interpreted Lee Jae-heon’s words as a bit of a provocation. His way of speaking often made people angry.
However, Seo Jang-hwa opened his mouth in a quite resolute manner.
“…I succeeded in finding the diving suit, but I failed to open the treasure chest. “It happened while I was away from Jeong Eun-woo for a while, so I don’t even know where that person went now.”
“and?”
“…I think Jung Eun-woo was turning into a monster… His hands started to become webbed and his skin became pale… I really don’t know much more than that. “I don’t know anything either.”
“Okay, good job.”
Lee Jae-heon, who heard Seo Jang-hwa’s report, gently pulled Park Da-young away.
“It has to stop now.”
“Mister, uncle, I….”
“Our Dayoung is crying a lot. “It’s okay, you don’t have to worry.”
“I was wrong…”
“You promised to save your sister, right?”
“….”
“You promised that when we first met. So…”
Park Da-young looked up at Lee Jae-heon with her lips tightly bitten, but even though Lee Jae-heon did not know the meaning of the rebellion, she just laughed it off.
The defiance of a weak chick who couldn’t do anything meant nothing.
“….”
A chick that is so small and soft that it feels like it will explode if you touch it.
“I will do that.”
Instead of thinking about useless things, you just need to be thankful to Me.
“got it?”
“….”
“…being smart.”
I laughed at the cute silence.
Park Da-young’s face was colored with a sense of defeat, as if she had managed to understand the words that Jae-heon Lee had chewed in the back of his throat.
Perhaps this chick really likes ‘Lee Jae-heon’.
‘How is this any different from children who throw tantrums because they don’t want to throw away their dirty pet dolls?’
This is why I don’t interact with chicks.
‘It’s inefficient.’
Lee Jae-heon gently brushed away the tangled hair on Park Da-young’s round forehead.
Lee Jae-heon’s blood left a mark, but Park Da-young just glared at Lee Jae-heon with a face full of tears.
“….”
The purple eyes are quite clever… I thought that if I raised them well, they would do their job well.
‘It’s a world like this, so it will be difficult to tame it to my taste.’
Lee Jae-heon used an eraser to erase the hopeful imagination that came to mind for a moment.
I would be very grateful if such a clever friend would be on my side, but considering that ‘Jaeheon Lee’ had not been able to properly raise these chicks, it seemed like it would be a difficult dream to achieve.
“So what should we do now?”
When I asked while taking my hand away from Park Da-young, Seo Jang-hwa, who frowned in dismay, sighed heavily and answered.
“…I came here to discuss…that.”
“aha.”
“First of all, Minhong… Minhong is the leader… the words are so confusing.”
“It’s okay to take it slow.”
“….”
Seo Jang-hwa, who was purring his lips, spoke again.
“…I was assuming that the stamped map was a hint. But no matter how much I looked at the map to help Eunwoo Jeong, I couldn’t find the answer. So, I guessed that Minhong, the owner of the map and the aquarium’s recipient of consideration, might be able to see something else in the map that we couldn’t see, so I looked for Jeong Eunwoo.”
“Please continue.”
“So… Anyway, Jung Eun-woo, who had a wetsuit license, is dead, so coming and looking at the map now won’t change anything, but I came to the concert venue thinking about that. I wanted Minhong to look at the map…”
“And?”
“Uncle, can you please stop saying ‘and’? “It makes people fucking crazy.”
Although his tone was rough, Seo Jang-hwa’s voice was trembling slightly, perhaps due to the pressure of Jeong Eun-woo’s death or the dark future ahead. A chick was definitely a chick.
“And we… since there is nothing we can do on our own since Eun-Woo Jeong is gone… we need to talk to other people, so of course we should talk to the people at this concert hall rather than those people from the friends in the stream. I think the results will be better….”
“….”
“Dayoung is so….”
“Too much?”
“…I’m having a hard time too…”
Jaeheon Lee smiled softly.
“I see.”
He returned from an honorific to a friendly informal speech, and Seo Jang-hwa seemed to have vaguely sensed his intention. Jaeheon Lee was doing his best to respond to the complaint that it was ‘too hard’.
Seo Jang-hwa seemed dumbfounded by Lee Jae-heon’s change of attitude, but what should he do? Lee Jae-heon left the smile on his face without any flaws.
“This can be happen. are you okay. “There is no problem.”
“…Now that Jeong Eun-woo has disappeared, how can you say that there is no problem?”
“You were going to become a monster anyway.”
“….”
“Why do I have webbed feet and my skin is pale? Didn’t gills form? “If things had progressed that quickly, we would have had to kill Eun-Woo Jeong in the end, no matter what the circumstances were… I’m glad he disappeared like this.”
Seo Jang-hwa’s face hardened at Lee Jae-heon’s words.
“…Are you saying that now…? “A person has been eaten by some kind of fucking box and I don’t even know where he is, so how can I say
I’m glad?”
“Don’t say it like a dog. “You can’t do that.”
“Haha yeah.”
Jaeheon Lee laughed slightly.
“I’m sorry.”
“What….”
“It was wrong, I won’t do that.”
“….”
“Can I do this?”
Jeong In-ho, who was watching the situation, intervened.
“Boss.”
“Seniors.”
“…Yes, senior. “Do it in moderation.”
“It’s the worst.”
When I spoke in a sarcastic tone, Jeong In-ho sighed and said.
“Janghwa is a friend who has just joined the team for the second time and has not yet adapted to the underworld. Above all, he is not a main member… He said he would not send Vivian, a classmate from his university, alone, so he came with him. “Do you know what I’m talking about?”
“Ah… you’re a chick as soft as cotton candy?”
“To some extent.”
“Then I will take care of it.”
“Please don’t talk like that…”
Seo Jang-hwa became angry, bordering on shock, at the conversation between the two.
“…Is everyone out of their minds right now? No, I know they’re fucking crazy, but shouldn’t there be a degree? Right now, we don’t know if the person is dead or alive…”
“Maybe he’s dead?”
“Don’t talk like a dog like that!!”
Seo Jang-hwa shouted at Lee Jae-heon’s words.
“Jung Eun-woo didn’t become that person because he wanted to become a monster! Even though he was trying to help us, that’s what happened…! “He got his certification on his own, volunteered to wear a wetsuit that might turn him into a monster, and tried to help, but now he doesn’t even know where he is and what condition he is in!”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“But now you’re telling me it’s okay because Jung Eun-woo is going to become a monster? We had to kill them anyway? So you can die? What the fuck are you doing? Isn’t it okay to use people so recklessly and then throw them away? “That’s not right. How can people do that?”
Seo Jang-hwa looked back at Jeong In-ho.
“Hey, Mr. Jeong In-ho. You really have no idea…? Jeong Eun-woo, if you’d rather have him disappear like this because he abandoned you when you were young, then just laugh at it, please…! “Just laugh at how well it went!”
“Janghwa… you’re excited now.”
“Is it weird that I’m excited?! This is normal, this is right! It’s strange for someone to talk so calmly about the fact that the person they were with until just now got into trouble. uh? “That’s strange!”
“Boots.”
“You guys are no strangers to Song In-myeong…!”
“….”
“…What….”
Seo Jang-hwa, who had said that far, closed his lips tightly with a pale face.
“….”
She probably felt a huge gap between the survivors.
The more times a person visited the secret world, the more insensitive he or she became to death. This does not mean that one’s own death or the death of others is not painful, but one simply accepts it with resignation or more.
There was no need to explain the phenomenon of regression, and seeing someone so indifferent to death seemed to have given Seo Jang-hwa quite a bit of aversion.
“…You crazy bastards….”
Whether it was intentional or not.
If death is nothing… what difference does that make to a murderer?
“….”
“….”
Lee Jae-heon broke the silence that had come with a sense of disappointment and betrayal with a nonchalant look on his face.
“So has it been decided now?”
“…Please shut up.”
“After all, I have to die, right?”
“Shut the fuck up….”
“Janghwa.”
Jaeheon Lee smiled as kindly as possible.
“great job.”
“…You really….”
“Good job. It was very difficult, right? “You must have been tired, but thank you for bringing Dayoung all the way here.”
“….”
“But don’t forget that you are still a student. You are still young. Jung Eun-woo’s death will also be very difficult. “That kind of responsibility should be handled by people who are a little older, not young people like you.”
Jaeheon Lee had seen these chicks several times in his past life.
“….”
“What do you think of Boots?”
We had to make them think for themselves.
“You’re tired. “Maybe I was wrong?”
No matter what I said, I had to lead them to believe that I was right.
“Janghwa is right. I’m crazy. And he’s not a good person.”
“….”
“But I think I can help you.”
I am right as much as you are right.
It’s a pity, but I had to let them know that my method was right.
“Is it okay if I do that?”
“….”
“…Oh my.”
Lee Jae-heon looked sad as Seo Jang-hwa began to cry silently.
‘It’s really soft.’
I guess a kid is still a kid.
‘I start crying at just a few words, so I don’t know how much I can control myself. Children around that age in my past life didn’t cry when I said things like that… I never thought the cultural difference would be this big.’
It wasn’t Lee Jae-heon who didn’t know what Seo Jang-hwa was feeling.
I felt betrayed by the survivors who I believed would be more compassionate and normal, and the loneliness of not having anyone to sympathize with me because there were only crazy people out there.
Fatigue caused by the death of someone you know and the pressure of the other side of the world. I was so annoyed and going crazy, but in the end, I felt defeated that I was being persuaded by Lee Jae-heon…
And I even felt helpless that I had to sacrifice even Lee Jae-heon to save Park Da-hoon.
“….”
Seo Jang-hwa cried with his head down and then covered his face with a red face, perhaps because he was embarrassed to see himself like that. A small whimper was heard from between the face covered with both arms.
“Oh, sister…”
Park Da-young, who was stomping her feet, rushed to Seo Jang-hwa’s side and comforted her. He probably would have been annoyed if Jung In-ho had gone, but at least Park Da-young seemed to be okay.
Pity me.
‘If Song In-myeong had been there, I would have ordered him to comfort me.’
Even though it seems like we’re fighting a bit now, aren’t we still friends from before? Lee Jae-heon, who could not escape from the accident in his previous life where the charge of ‘murder’ was extremely light, thought of Song In-myeong with the intention of pure consideration.
It was a crazy idea, but unfortunately for Lee Jae-heon, Song In-myeong was not here. This was because I was told to go to room 11 and collect information.
I could go and call him, but…
“…Hmm.”
…It would be okay to tell the story at this point.
Lee Jae-heon, scratching his neck, glanced at Jeong In-ho and approached Seo Jang-hwa.
“Boots.”
“…Get away from me….”
“Would you like to see this?”
Jaeheon Lee decided to be a little more considerate of this small and soft chick.
“Don’t just say you don’t like it, just look at it once.”
“Oh please…!”
“huh? “It’s boots.”
He grabbed the hand of Seo Jang-hwa, who was running away, and led him to touch his neck with it.
It was the same posture as when Jeong In-ho encouraged them to strangle him, so the survivors’ expressions hardened.
“What should we do now…!”
Seo Jang-hwa, who was startled and angry, soon stiffened.
“….”
“What do you think?”
“…Uh….”
“What do you think this is?”
“…Wait a minute….”
“It’s okay.”
What Seo Jang-hwa touched was a gill that was bleeding bright red.
“….”
Gills on the neck.
Jaeheon Lee spoke again.
“It’s okay, right?”
“….”
“I wanted to let you know that you don’t have to worry too much.”
“….”
“There’s no need to worry about crying with such a sad face… I feel so bad that Janghwa, who has always been strong and resolute, is like this.”
“…No….”
“Would you like me to say it a little easier?”
He truly thought that Seo Jang-hwa would welcome this fact.
“You can kill me.”
“….”
“Because I’m a monster too.”
This was complete consideration for the chick.
(Continued in the next part)
